


A Guide to the Inappropriate Uses of Time Travel

by st4rlabsforever (omaken)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 5+1, Barry Allen/Cisco Ramon/Barry Allen, Inappropriate Use of the Speed Force, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Prank Wars, Time Travel, commitment issues, implied ot3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-05-25 20:40:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6209323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omaken/pseuds/st4rlabsforever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Barry time traveled for a completely ridiculous reason, and one time he didn't.</p><p>Written for Flashvibe Week 2016.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was for the tumblr prompt: "For the flashvibe prompt thing: Barry finding out (in a super casual way) that Cisco's bi and trying to act normal because he has the BIGGEST crush on Cisco and the only excuse he had for not asking him out was that he thought Cisco was straight (change it however you see fit, it's kind of a crappy prompt but I live for bi Cisco) thanks :)))))"

1.

Barry had ghosted again on his way to the police station that morning.

He’d made a note to ask Cisco when he saw him later because it was bound to be something important, but he’d had other things to worry about.

He’d had another argument with Iris last night. She’d apparently been sick of the googly eyes he’d been sending in Cisco’s direction in the past few months and told him to ‘just ask him out already.’ Which, Barry would’ve done weeks ago if it wasn’t for one little snag in the plan: he was fairly certain Cisco wasn’t interested in men.

For the past few weeks, Barry had been in his own personal hell. Cisco had apparently decided that he’d needed a personal makeover because first, he’d grown out his facial hair, and then he’d tied his hair up in a loose bun. It wasn’t only actively distracting to Barry’s train of thought on a daily basis now, it was all he could think about. He was rendered a stuttering mess whenever Cisco gave him a quick squeeze on the shoulder or a tight hug after taking down a meta, which, given how affectionate Cisco was, happened multiple times a day.

 

(“What if he’s not interested?”

“So what? You’ll never know unless you ask.”

“But – but he’s never even mentioned other men…”

“And? Have you?”

Barry had looked away stubbornly.

“I can’t…if I lose him, if it makes things weird between us, I don’t know if I could take it. He’s…he’s one of my best friends, Iris.”

“But you wish he was something more?” Iris had asked sympathetically.

“Bar, come on, you can’t keep denying yourself happiness. Cisco knows almost everything about you, and he’s been with you every step of the way. He wouldn’t let something like this come between you guys…”

Barry hadn’t answered, but he hadn’t needed to.)

 

The day had gone by without a hitch, and they’d defeated the meta that had shown up without much difficulty.

“I dunno. Just be glad you didn’t have to time travel,” Cisco said with a shrug.

And this was it. Barry was going to tell Cisco everything. He’d spent too long worrying about what would happen if he told Linda and Patty about his secret identity, and in the end he’d never even allowed himself to explore what a relationship with them would have been like. Gathering up every last bit of courage he possessed, he’d sworn to himself that he’d talk to Cisco today, and if things didn’t go well, that was fine, he’d deal with it. He promised himself he wouldn’t be afraid of what the future held any longer.

“Hey, Cisco…”

“What’s up?”

“I, uh…”

 _Beep beep_.

An alert from CCPD about a homicide. Fantastic. He really felt like the universe was conspiring against him here.

“Er, table this discussion for tomorrow?” he asked tentatively.

“Sure thing, dude.”

 

* * *

 

 

He’d spent the better part of his night trying to figure out why a cyclist downtown died in a collision with a car and yet had three bullets lodged in his stomach. But he’d vowed not to back down and have the conversation with Cisco that morning.

When he walked into the Cortex, Cisco was enthusiastically showing Caitlin something on his phone.

“See? That’s him. He gave the keynote address at CERN last year and he’s only a year older than me!”

“That’s great, Cisco! Where’d you guys meet?”

“Jitters, can you believe it? He’s in town for a conference. We’ve got another date set up tonight! Oh, hey Bar.”

“What’s going on?” Barry asked cautiously.

“Cisco met a guy. I think they’re dating now,” Caitlin winked.

And Barry’s heart dropped.

 _No_. No, no, no, no, no.

This wasn’t happening. He’d only just worked up the courage to ask Cisco on a date last night. The irony was that he’d wanted to know if Cisco was into men and now he had his answer, only Cisco was decidedly unavailable for the immediate future. This was just like Iris all over again. He’d hoped that eventually, she’d move on from Eddie and he’d have a chance to finally tell her how he felt, but they’d ended up getting married. It was going to be the same with Cisco, and he’d gone and ruined his chance because he hadn’t had the nerve to do what he should’ve done ages ago until yesterday. And it was far too late now.

Unless…

 _No._ Absolutely not. Harry would murder him on the spot. Caitlin would probably roll her eyes disapprovingly. Iris would approve, but he would have to live with her smug grin every day for the rest of his life. This was so completely and utterly not an appropriate use of his powers. Not to mention, what right did he have to intrude on Cisco’s personal life?

And yet, he’d ghosted yesterday morning…

 _No_. Screw it. He didn’t care how selfish it was – he was going to seize something for himself just this once. There was just an overwhelming sense of _right_ with Cisco, and he wasn’t willing to let this go without a fight.

“Uh, Barry? You okay?”

Cisco and Caitlin looked concerned.

“Yeah,” he plastered on a grin. “Just – forgot about something I have to do in the lab today…congrats, though!”

They looked perplexed as he dashed away.

 

* * *

 

Okay, he could do this. He would get to S.T.A.R. Labs early that night and drop the bomb on Cisco before he started second-guessing himself.

Cisco blinked back at him.

“Sorry, it was stupid, I shouldn’t have said any--mfphhh”

Cisco was kissing him. Aggressively.

When he pulled back, Barry said, “I didn’t know you felt the same way. I was hoping, but–“

“Shut up, Barry, I’ve sort of had a crush on you since the day you were wheeled into S.T.A.R. Labs and I found out about your Lady Gaga obsession on Facebook.”

“Dude…”

Cisco raised an eyebrow. “You seriously time-jumped for that, though?”

Barry rubbed the back of his neck.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Cisco continued.

And Barry wasn’t complaining either, because this was perfect.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You will never convince me that Barry isn't the actual troublemaker in this ship despite everyone thinking it's Cisco.

2.

Cisco had really had no idea just how competitive Barry was until today.

It was the first “office” prank war and Cisco had even managed to rope in Joe and Harry, though the former claimed not to know anything about pranks and the latter had rolled his eyes in a way that suggested that they were all below him. Cisco was calling bullshit though. First, he was calling Joe’s ‘old dad’ bluff where he stood because he’d worked with the guy for months now and there was no way he didn’t have a few tricks up his sleeve. And it went without saying that he was keeping one eye on Harry at all times, because when his idea of forcing Cisco to vibe again had been to dress up as the supervillain who had once shoved a hand through Cisco’s chest, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what qualified as a ‘prank.’

Just as they were fanning out to their workstations (even though all of them silently acknowledged that no work would be getting done any time soon), Iris had pulled him to the side and given him a warning.

“Look, I know you and Barry are…whatever you are,” she waved a hand in Barry’s direction. Truthfully, after that first kiss, they had decided to take things slow, or rather, life had decided that they should put whatever was developing between them on the backburner as the metas (and the revelation about Jay) had come out in full force.

“But I just want you to know that he’s…well, he’s competitive, so keep your eyes peeled. He’ll pull every dirty trick in the book to win. He’s ruthless.”

Okay, that was a little surprising.

“Barry?” he questioned.

He’d known since he’d first met him that Barry was a competitive little shit and loved showing off his powers, but it was in more of a playful way. Playing ‘dirty’ and ‘ruthless’ weren’t exactly words he’d have chosen to describe him -- Cisco had always seen him as the de facto poster boy for white knights TM everywhere.

Iris nodded.

“Uh…you sure about that?”

He looked at Barry, who had a wide grin on his face as he laughed at a joke Wally had just told and Joe smacked him on the head.

Iris raised an eyebrow. “I’ve known him since we were kids.”

“Well, okay then. Thanks.” He tucked that tidbit of information away for later.

 

* * *

 

 

He had been working on his first prank for the past few minutes. He’d decided to hit Harry hard right off the bat and switch out the lenses on his glasses, although that was probably a task more suited for Barry given his speed.

Was Iris right? He hadn’t seen any trace of the speedster since they’d each branched off to do their own thing, but he nevertheless kept his guard up. Well, as well as he could as he planned and tinkered with his gadgets, which was the excuse he was going with for how Barry had managed to sneak up on him.

“Boo.”

Barry’s head poked up  _ through the floor _ behind him, his voice tinny as he was forced to vibrate his entire body to maintain his current position.

Cisco yelped and nearly fell out of his chair, but Barry caught him, steadied him, and dusted him off before backing away.

“Hi, Cisco!” Barry gave him a cheerful wave and a sunny smile and, okay, alarm bells and red flags were immediately going off and up in Cisco’s head.

He narrowed his eyes. “What are you after?”

Barry held up his hands in surrender, but that didn’t stop Cisco from carefully eyeing all of his toys, even if he full well knew he wouldn’t be able to stop them from disappearing if Barry had really wanted them.

“Relax, I just wanted to see how you were holding up,” he said with that ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt’ look firmly in place that had Cisco incrementally letting down his guard. How did he  _ do _ that? Practice? He knew it didn’t come from any of the Wests. He’d have to ask Henry about it the next time he was in town.

“Dude, if anyone sees us together, they’re gonna think we’re conspiring. Do you know how scary Caitlin gets when she thinks there’s cheating going on?”

“So? What’s so bad about working together?”

“It’s supposed to be every man for himself!”

“Yeah, technically,” Barry shrugged. “But you scratch my back, I scratch yours, right?” He waggled his eyebrows.

Cisco groaned. It was sometimes difficult to remember that this was the Man Who Saved Central City standing in front of him. But he had never been good at denying Barry anything, not when he flashed those doe eyes and pouted that way he did with his lower lip. They had to dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barry Allen didn’t know what he was doing, because he knew  _ exactly _ what he was doing.

Cisco gave in anyway and Barry had given him a spirited high-five before they got to planning out their ‘assault,’ as Barry had called it. And maybe there was some truth to what Iris had said after all.

 

* * *

 

 

“I take it back. This was the worst idea ever.”

They were hiding in one of S.T.A.R. Labs’ storage closets on account of the mob that was systematically tearing the building down in search of them. Barry’s idea of a prank had been pretty crude, but Cisco had been content to just sit back and let Barry do all of the planning since he’d been so excited. He had managed to dye Harry’s hair bright blue and coat Iris and Wally head-to-toe in itching powder before they’d even known what had hit them. It was asinine, but Cisco couldn’t help cracking up at the sight of it.

Which was how they found themselves in their current predicament. Pitchforks had been raised, alliances had been forged, and blood had been sought. Harry had taken a shot at Barry with the anti-speed gun and nearly hit him and Cait had given the two of them an ominous look as she’d retreated back into her lab and began tinkering with the deadly-looking chemicals in there.

“What are we gonna do?” Barry asked breathlessly.

“I dunno, just wait for it to blow over? They’ll get bored eventually.”  _ Though not any time soon _ , Cisco thought to himself as he listened to the uproar just outside the door.

“But ­-- but then we won’t win!” Barry said desperately, fists pressed against his temples.

“ _ That’s _ what you’re worried about? Not Harry putting a hole through your head?”

“That’s not…wait!” Barry zipped off and returned with the vibing goggles. “If I run back in time, we can win this thing fair and square without the others ever figuring out that we’re working together.”

That was a pretty interesting definition of ‘fair and square,’ but Cisco didn’t mention it because of the other gaping hole in Barry’s argument.

“Wait, you wanna  _ time jump _ to win a prank war?”

“Only if nothing bad happens. But, you can check, right? Just vibe into the new timeline and see if anything bad happens if I time jump right now,” Barry said urgently.

“No way, this is insane!”

“Come  _ on _ , Cisco! It’s not like I’m changing something important. For all we know, I could end up getting a stupid haircut instead, or...or maybe my hair gets dyed blue instead. But you’re the failsafe, dude. If I end up, I don’t know, destroying the universe or something, then we’ll think of something else.”

Well, when he put it like that…

He sighed and slipped on the goggles. “Fine, but you owe me big time for this one.”

“Yes!” Barry nodded eagerly.

When he slid the goggles off, he nodded to Barry. He couldn’t believe this was really happening right now, especially after that whole speech he had given Barry during the Vandal Savage affair.

Barry grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll find each other. See you soon, buddy.”

And then he was gone in a gust of wind and Cisco was pondering how this was even his life.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anon asked: "cisco getting wrecked by both Barrys"

3.

Cisco’s birthday was this weekend and Barry had made it clear that he was pulling out all the stops. Between the crime fighting sessions that seemed to pop up more and more frequently these days he was running around like a lunatic, mumbling to himself about everything needing to be ‘perfect’ and getting the timing ‘just right.’ It was only when Hartley dropped by the Cortex and passed Barry the vibrational gauntlets with a wink that Cisco realized he should probably be concerned.

“Wait, what do you need those for?”

Barry shrugged. “Protection. Unless you think you could…” he trailed off.

“What?”

“You know…” Barry mimed shooting blasts out of hands, explosive noises and all. “But if you’re not comfortable doing that yet, we’ve got these.”

“But what do we need protection for?”

Cisco noticed the shifty look that Barry gave Hartley and decided that no, he actually didn’t want to think about this weekend at all. Barry was going to drag him into whatever ridiculous situation he had planned anyway, and God help anyone who got in his way.

 

* * *

 

 

“Okay, I’ve never actually run with a passenger this fast before, so hold on I guess.”

Barry pulled the cowl over his head and reached to pick Cisco up. Cisco, to his credit, didn’t say a word, but if he became a splat on the pavement, he was haunting Barry for like, the rest of his life. He only felt marginally safer as Barry held him tightly, the leather of the suit creaking loudly in the silence of the deserted lab.

He wanted to make a wisecrack about being held so closely, but Barry chose that moment to start running.

It was only after a few seconds that Cisco realized their surroundings weren’t changing. Were they running in circles?

“Hey, where are we?”

“Particle accelerator. We’re almost done,” Barry said. His voice was tinny through the comms, and it was a miracle that Cisco could even hear him at all with the wind howling all around them.

Particle accelerator, though?  _ Wait _ –

“Hold up, we’re not  _ time jumping _ , are we?”

He had gotten used to the fact that Barry was happy to abuse his time traveling powers as long as there weren’t any severe consequences, but those had all been solo ventures. On the one hand, Barry’s body was perfectly suited to traveling at the speeds needed to break the time continuum, but on the other hand, they had never considered him taking a passenger along before. Technically, anything or any _ one _ traveling at the same speed as Barry would be able to pass through the time breach though, so they had that going for them at least.

He was about to protest or at least try to find out if Barry knew what the hell he was doing when the wind died down and suddenly they were tumbling, skidding to a halt on the sleek, cold surface of the lab floor beneath them.

“When are we?” Cisco glanced around the Cortex after he made sure his head was still screwed on the right way. It was the same as he had always known it, glossy workstations on one end and the suit display on the other. Whatever time period they landed in wasn’t one that he could easily recall, though – the entire lab looked deserted and a thick layer of dust stuck to his fingers as he slid them across one of the displays on his desk.

“Remember this?” Barry asked quietly. “If I got the timing right, this should be a month after the Singularity. When I was...you know.”

Actually, Cisco didn’t know, not really. As he did a lap around the empty halls, he couldn’t help but feel like he was intruding. Sure, none of them had really known what Barry was doing during those few months when STAR Labs had shuttered its windows, and it was still a sore point for him that out of all of them, he had been the only one even remotely interested in starting their superhero operation back up, but he respected that Barry had needed his space to heal and move on. Honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure what they were doing here.

“Catch.” Barry tossed him the gauntlets.

“You still haven’t said why we even need these. You expecting a family of Grodds to crash the party or something?”

Barry shuddered. “Figured they’d be good to have just in case a Time Wraith shows up again.”

Right. And that was precisely why these time-traveling adventures were such a bad idea.

“Anyway,” Barry continued, “it’s not ideal, but no one should interrupt us here.”

“What are we doing, Bar? We shouldn’t be messing around here. I might not totally understand what you were doing in here last year, but I know it’d be dangerous to mess with the timeline now. Kinda different than a prank war or a date this time around…”

“Don’t worry, we’re not here for anything serious.”

Cisco was about to question that when they were interrupted by a whooshing sound from behind them. He whirled around and fired up the gauntlets, but on closer inspection saw that it was...Barry himself? Past Barry, dressed in a pair of jeans and a disheveled-looking plaid button down.

“You made it,” Barry said. His Barry.

*

“Okay, I’m gonna need an explanation right about now.”

Past Barry was just standing there. He looked a little lost, but in no way shocked to be face-to-face with another him and Cisco.

“Hey, come on, just relax for a bit. It’s your  _ birthday _ , man. Trust me?” Barry asked gently. He squeezed Cisco’s shoulder.

Always.

He nodded and suddenly found himself sitting at the edge of the med bay gurney...with his pants off. A second later and Barry was in front of him, squeezing a liberal amount of Caitlin’s industrial-grade lube into his hand.

“Lean back.” Barry’s voice was low and commanding, and Cisco would be lying if he said that wasn’t doing things to him.

Barry had an arm pressed against the gurney, the rest of his body leaning down as he took Cisco in hand.

“Not sure why we needed to  _ GAH _ \--!” Cisco was rambling – which he always did, and which Barry always teased him for even though he himself had a tendency to ramble even more during sex ­– when Barry added in a long vibration on the next stroke.

“No more talking. Just let us do the work.”

_ Us _ ?

He'd forgot the other Barry was still here. He was leaning against the doorframe and  _ oh God _ , Cisco recognized that hungry look in his eyes -- pupils dilated with an overwhelming need -- because he saw it on Barry’s face every time they ended the night draped over Cisco’s couch (which, admittedly was not as often as he'd have liked since they'd decided to keep things casual for now, but that was neither here nor there).

And he was not expecting this at all. Since seeing Barry’s dorky Earth-2 doppelgänger, it had been one of his deepest, darkest fantasies and it had certainly helped warm his sheets on many a lonely night, but he figured it would never, ever happen, and not least of all because there had never been another Barry to make that vision a reality, married Earth-2 doppelgänger notwithstanding.

Barry’s past self was here though and, from the looks of it, more than willing.

In a gust of wind, other Barry was behind him, thin but strong fingers kneading the knots in his back with unerring accuracy. Cisco didn't even realize at first that the moaning he heard was coming from his own mouth. Past Barry was apparently a massage savant, or, well, present Barry, too -- both Barrys, whatever. Vibrating fingers roved up and down Cisco's body, thumbs digging into pressure points and causing him to cry out in pleasure.

“How are you doing that…?” Cisco asked, his voice hoarse.

“CSI school,” murmured a low voice from behind him. “They had us all take an anatomy and physiology course.”

“Professor Kucinski,” Barry grunted from the front. His face was screwed in concentration as his hand worked the length of Cisco’s member from base to tip. “He was out of his mind.”

Other Barry gave a quiet chuckle. “Anyway, we did some outside research. Do you know what erogenous zones are? They can be arousing if you hit them right.” He rubbed soothing circles into Cisco’s shoulder blades, kneading first with his fingertips then with his knuckles. Cisco felt himself melting into the gurney despite how rather uncomfortable it was.

Barry stopped stroking him but Cisco wasn’t even mad ­– couldn’t be – because Barry had switched gears and those magic fingers were massaging his feet in a mirror image of what the Barry up top was doing. Slowly, they worked over every inch of his body. It felt like someone had flipped the ‘off’ switch and every one of his muscles had slackened, his body like putty in their hands.

Even in his lust-fueled haze, though, he noticed the striking difference between the Barry of the present and the Barry of the past. This younger Barry was more hesitant, wanting to touch but not sure if he was allowed. Cisco felt terrible now about not trying harder to get through to him in those days. Barry’s older self, on the other hand, was more aggressive, his touches needier and more desperate like he thought tonight was their last night together. He really had to do something about that when they were back in their time.

His entire body gave a jolt when he felt Barry’s tongue on his cock. He took him entirely in his mouth, his tongue giving off steady vibrations. It was devastating and Cisco loved that he got to keep that particular talent all to himself.

“Can I try something?” The other Barry had moved next to him at some point.

Cisco nodded, not trusting himself to be able to form actual words right now. And then Barry’s hand was vibrating, hovering over Cisco.

“Trust me?” His voice was subdued like he expected Cisco to say ‘no,’ but Cisco reminded himself that this was Barry and not the Reverse Flash or Zoom, and he wasn’t about to get a fist through his chest.

He nodded again and Barry took that as his cue, his hand slowly, ever so slowly lowering toward Cisco’s groin. He didn’t stop when he met flesh though, gradually sinking his arm in. Cisco would’ve been lying if he’d said it wasn’t freaky. He wasn’t sure precisely what Barry was doing, but trust him unconditionally he did.

When he felt it, he shrieked. And okay, he was beginning to think Barry had the right idea in bringing them to this time because boy was he glad no one could hear him right now. It was like nothing he had ever experienced. It felt like Barry was taking his prostate and gently rubbing it between his fingers, probably because that was exactly what he was doing. He didn’t understand how Barry wasn’t shredding apart his internal organs – was it physics? Magic? The important thing, though, was that Barry apparently had the science behind it down to a T.

“It’s okay?”

“Y-yes!” Cisco managed to stutter out when it became clear that Barry wasn’t going to continue until he had permission. Which: utterly ridiculous, because it was the most amazing thing he had ever felt.

Barry nodded before resuming his ministrations. Cisco’s body seized as waves upon waves of pleasure overwhelmed him, Barry’s fingers relentlessly stroking inside him while the other’s tongue pulsed around his shaft. He was proud to say, perhaps a bit selfishly, that he was probably the only person on the planet to have experienced this particular sensation.

“I-I’m close–“ Cisco warned with a whimper.

The two of them both stopped at once and the resulting void left him reeling. He let out a soft keening noise that he was absolutely not embarrassed of.

“You’re doing so good, Cisco. Can you hold out just a little longer?”

Cisco wasn’t even sure which of them had said it, but he closed his eyes and nodded mutely. When he peeked open an eyelid, his Barry was pulling the cowl back to reveal sweat-rumpled hair and using his teeth to rip off the gloves, and that should  _ not  _ have been a kink – it shouldn’t have – but it was. Judging by the smirk Barry was giving him, he knew it as well. He had always been a quick study.

Cisco didn’t have time to reflect on newly discovered kinks, though, because both Barrys were right back on him (and how often was it that a guy got to say that?). There was a rush of air and it was suddenly plaid Barry in front of him voraciously sucking him off. He jerked when a suited arm thrust abruptly  _ into _ his crotch.

“Don’t think I can’t do that too,” Barry whispered in his war. Competitive.

He was positive that the sounds that were coming out of his mouth weren’t human. Barry gave his prostate a tender squeeze while continuing to roll it between his thumb and forefinger and the effect was deadly. The human body wasn’t meant to be stimulated in this way, but that wasn’t stopping Barry. In the metallic silence of the lab, Cisco’s moaning sounded absolutely  _ filthy _ .

Not one to be outdone, past Barry rolled up a plaid sleeve and phased his free hand in as well, warring for dominance with the other pair of fingers already there.

By his count, there were two vibrating tongues and two full sets of vibrating fingers dead set on ensuring that he was writhing in ecstasy. It was too much and still not enough, his body craving more, more, more. The Barrys shared a look before doing something with their fingers that had Cisco screaming in euphoria.

His vision whited out and he came hard a moment later and Barry leaned back to  _ let the load hit him in the face _ . Barry reached up a hand and wiped his cheek, licking at his fingers while continuing to stroke Cisco as his body heaved through the aftershocks. Cisco wished he could snapshot this moment for all of posterity to see because Barry kneeling down like that had to have been the hottest thing he had ever seen.

Barry was an evil, evil genius though because the two of them phased their arms back into him and Cisco was thrashing again. They stroked his g-spot directly, the Speed Force allowing their vibrating hands access in ways that a non-speedster could never hope to achieve. It was exhilarating. His muscles tensed once more as his body bucked; it felt as if they were physically ripping his orgasm out of him, which was probably a fairly literal description given that he had two arms sticking out of his pelvis.

He had never come before without direct contact to his dick, but he was coming hard again as the two Barrys coaxed every last bit of pleasure from him. He lost track of time, all his nerves firing at once as his muscles turned to jelly.

Finally, they eased off of him as Cisco lay panting, completely and utterly spent. His brain had apparently decided to take a vacation (that, or they’d managed to fuck his brains out of his ears, which, given what he’d just experienced, was entirely possible) because it took him a few minutes before he managed to speak.

“Th-that was  _ incredible _ .”

His Barry grinned, looking immensely pleased with himself. Even this younger Barry gave a ghost of a smile (and it was obvious that he hadn’t used those facial muscles in a long time).

“Scoot over,” Barry said finally. He plopped down next to Cisco, the suit creaking awkwardly in the post-coital silence.

“Don’t you guys want help with those?” Cisco gestured at their waning erections.

“Tonight’s about you. We have all day tomorrow,” Barry grinned.

When Cisco laid down, Barry’s counterpart was already snoring lightly next to him. It was a bit tight, the three of them crammed on the gurney like that, but there was no denying this was the best birthday sex ever.

 

* * *

 

 

Hartley gave them a knowing look when they returned the gauntlets the next day.

Cisco immediately set himself to brainstorming a way he could repay Barry for that wonderful little gift.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Cisco learns a thing or two about the Barry of the future.

4.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Iris asked anxiously.

“Like 90 percent sure. Okay, a hard 75,” Cisco amended at the skeptical look Iris shot his way.

They had been trying to plan a surprise birthday party for Barry all week, but given his tendency to worry, he kept showing up unannounced at all hours of the day wondering where they were. Coupled with his speed, he could essentially be everywhere at once, which made the whole ‘surprise’ aspect a bit tricky. It had only been through sheer luck that they’d avoided getting caught so far, but something had to give.

 

(“You’re sure no one’s blackmailing you?” Barry had asked anxiously.

“Yes! Oh my god--”

“Because you know you can tell me anything, right? I know we agreed not to put a label on us, but I don’t want you to feel like you can’t come to me when you’re in trouble.” Barry had put both hands on Cisco’s shoulders and looked him earnestly in the eyes. And there it’d been again. That urge to tell Barry everything. They seriously had to run a controlled experiment soon to find out whether those puppy dog eyes held the power of mind control.

“I know. I swear on my life nothing sketchy is going on, Bar,” Cisco had sighed.

But Barry had only bounced nervously from foot to foot. “And...it’s not me that’s the problem?”

“Oh for the love of -- of _course_ not!” He’d walked right up in Barry’s personal space and kissed him hard.)

 

So he’d slipped on the goggles and located a future version of Barry. They’d needed a speedster (preferably, a non-evil one, which didn’t really leave many options open) to keep Barry occupied and, well, an older, faster version of himself ought to do the trick.

Barry had been a little shocked to hear Cisco’s disembodied voice, then laughed when Cisco had told him why they’d needed his help, but he’d heeded the call to arms and told them to hang tight.

That had been ten minutes ago, though.

“You’re sure he’s coming?” Iris didn’t sound like she was particularly confident in future Barry’s ability to be on time, which: valid.

There was a massive rush of wind in the Cortex, and when the papers finally settled, Barry was there in the suit.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said as he dusted himself off. “I accidentally went back too far the first time and there was this crazy -- anyway…” he said when he saw the looks on their faces.

When he pulled off the cowl though, Cisco did a double take.

Wow.

 _Wow_.

Where the only Barry that Cisco had ever known on this Earth was more boyish charm and oblivious cuteness, this older Barry oozed sex appeal. It was evident in his sharp, tapered haircut and well-groomed facial hair, and Cisco could feel his metaphorical panties getting soaked.

And this Barry knew it, if his smirk was any indication. “Like what you see?” He honest to god winked at Cisco.

“Uh…” Cisco could feel his brain cells melting as he tried to formulate a response.

“Come on, you look like you need a break.” Barry palmed at his crotch with a vibrating hand.

“Jesus, right now?” Cisco really didn’t need to be convinced much further, except… “And what if Barry -- _my_ Barry -- isn’t okay with this?” Because that was actually a legitimate concern. He really needed to set the ground rules with Barry the next time he saw him.

“Bro, I’m literally Barry. This happened years ago for me and I promise I’m okay with it.”

Well, when he put it like that… “Fine, but make it quick. This party’s not gonna set itself up, you know.”

“Of course.” Barry bowed dramatically, then turned to Iris. “You joining us?” Iris spluttered and Cisco noticed that her face had turned about as red as his own. “Or not,” Barry backtracked. “Guess that hasn’t happened yet for you? Must’ve gotten my timestreams crossed.”

And Barry was whisking him away, ignoring the confused look on his face.

*

“Holy hell.” Cisco collapsed on the floor of STAR Labs’ bathroom, completely sated and indifferent to how many germs were getting on him. “That was better than my birthday, and there were two of you then.”

“I’m from the future, dude. I know what makes you tick.” Barry gave him a smug smile, looking particularly proud of himself.

In the next second, Barry was back in the suit and Cisco found that he was dressed, too. “Already?” Cisco absolutely wasn’t whining.

“Weren’t you the one who said we had to make this quick?” Barry raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but…” He’d said that without accounting for the fact that future Barry, who was very much still his Barry thank you very much, was apparently a sex god.

“Let’s go. You’ll just have to wait a couple of years to experience this again,” Barry teased, ruffled Cisco’s hair, and picked him up before whooshing off again.

*

“So, what’s the plan exactly?” Barry asked when they were back in the Cortex.

“We’re heading over to Cisco’s apartment right now to set up,” Iris said. She was still giving Barry a strange look.

Cisco handed him a syringe. “This has enough tranquilizer to knock him out for five hours. For real this time,” he added at Barry’s frown. “But if he wakes up sooner than that, just keep him away from my place ‘till 7. Don’t hurt him, though.”

“Got it.” Barry zipped off and the resulting blast of wind was enough to knock one of the monitors off of the workstation.

Cisco shrugged as he and Iris began cleaning up the mess. “Guess we’re gonna have to start bolting these down.”

 

* * *

 

 

“SURPRISE!”

Cisco and the rest of the team jumped out from behind the couch when Barry inevitably came bursting through the door (literally).

“I -- I thought --” Barry stammered as his face steadily grew redder and redder.

“--that we were getting maimed and tortured by a supervillain?”

Barry only stared back at him with wide eyes, panting with the monumental effort it must’ve taken to run here so fast. “The other me wouldn’t tell me anything and he wouldn’t let me leave. Cisco, he was _so_ much faster than me. He acted like this was all some game.”

And right on cue, future Barry appeared in the room. The resulting tempest had blown the fruit platter and slices of cake into the air, and when the dust settled, his Barry was at the center of it all, comically trying to juggle the ceramics without losing any of the food.

Cisco felt the suited arm draped over his shoulders before he saw it. “Well, if I’m not needed for anything else, I’ll be on my way.” The low rumble of his voice had Cisco shivering. This Barry wasn’t only sharper and more clean-cut, but also completely and utterly confident in his ability to cause Cisco to swoon. Which...if Cisco was Barry, he supposed he’d probably be that self-assured too.

Future Barry gave him a peck on the cheek and the sound of plates shattering filled the room.

“Later buddy.” He gave his younger counterpart a salute before vanishing in a trail of yellow lightning. Cisco could’ve sworn that he’d heard laughter following in his wake.

Iris hid a giggle behind her hand and Barry was a stuttering mess as he cleaned up the fragments.

“Hey, future you might kinda be a dick,” Cisco said as he moved in to help Barry, “but he gives great oral. Or _you_ give great oral -- semantics or whatever, am I right?” He gave Barry a playful nudge, but...

_“WHAT?!”_

Barry looked thunderstruck.

“Hey,” Cisco held up his hands in surrender. “It was you who told me that you were completely okay with this. He swore you wouldn’t be mad!”

“Well, I guess I’m not, but _Cisco_ ,” Barry groaned.

“Calm down, I haven’t even given you your present yet.” And that definitely got Barry’s attention.

*

“I don’t know!” Cisco said for the fourth time that night. “He just kind of swirled his tongue and did this thing with his thumb.”

Trust him to run his big mouth again, but it wasn’t his fault that Barry’s future self had been a god at putting those speedster powers to good use in the bedroom.

“You gotta be more specific, Cis,” Barry said when he surfaced for air.

“I’m trying, but I -- _ahhh!_ ”

“Focus, Cisco!”

“Kinda hard to do that when I’m getting blown and fingered at the same time,” Cisco quipped back as best he could with his voice sounding so sex-wrecked. “Besides, it’s really n-nahh! --not a big deal. You’re already like an 11/10, dude. But if you really wanna know, I could just vibe again and ask him -- err, you, I guess.”

“No! I can figure it out on my own,” Barry said petulantly, stopping his ministrations completely now.

“Wait, you’re not jealous, are you?” Barry scowled and looked away, because of course leave it to him to get so worked up over this, so Cisco continued: “You’re literally jealous of yourself right now.” It wasn’t a question. “Think about how ridiculous that sounds.”

“Not ridiculous,” Barry mumbled.

Aw, crap. He didn’t mean to put out the sun. “Hey, hey, hey. That’s not what I meant, Bar. Look, This version of you is the one I’ll choose every single time.” Barry gave him a small smile. “Like, it’s cool to see what future versions of you are like, but it’s no fun without getting to experience the journey, and there’s only one person I wanna do that with.”

“Really?” Barry asked hopefully.

Cisco gave his shoulder a squeeze. “No one else.”

Barry beamed, and behind his eyes, Cisco could see the crackling lightning and the determined look. “Let me try one more time.”

Well, how could a guy say no to that? He leaned back against the generous stack of pillows and was screaming in pleasure a few seconds later.

*

Go figure. The inspirational speeches also worked in Barry’s sex life, Cisco realized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was shameless...
> 
> This fic will be complete by the end of today for Flashvibe Week


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry + Cisco + dinosaurs. 'Nuff said.

5.

“What are we doing, Bar?”

“Uh, watching a meteor shower during the Jurassic period?” Barry asked him, slightly perplexed as they watched the bright lights streak across the sky unobstructed by any of the modern-day light pollution.

They were sat atop a rocky outcrop that Barry had run them up to. Cisco was stretched out on his back, head laid in Barry’s lap, taking in the sights. There were even what looked to be tiny little brontosauruses roaming the valley below, he noticed when he shifted slightly to scratch at the itch at that annoying spot just below his neck.

“Us, I mean,” Cisco clarified. “What are we?”

“Cisco...I don’t think we need to put a label on us to do what we’re doing,” Barry said cautiously. His hand crept up between Cisco’s shoulder blades right on the sweet spot and scratched.

“Guh, thanks.” He sat up and felt the warmth on his back immediately leave him. “But I meant, it’s been two years since we first started...you know? Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of, I don’t know, gradual progression with these things?”

He knew that Barry was a bit tetchy about commitment, especially given his track record with Linda and Patty and then the terror of losing anyone close to him to someone like Zoom, but Cisco had figured they’d had something at least a little special going.

When he turned to look Barry in the eyes, he only saw confusion and his heart dropped. And okay, it wasn’t like Cisco was looking to settle down with kids anytime soon -- God no. But he thought after all this time, after the cheesy slash amazing dates to far-flung corners of the globe and the adventures through time just because they could, that they were ready to at least solidify their not-relationship into something a little more formal. At least, he was. To Barry though, apparently what they had now was all he was looking for.

And then, because Barry had to _really_ twist the knife in deeper, he said “Progression? I just -- I don’t think we should rush things. I mean, we’ve got time under our control, right?” He spread his arms out grandly in front of him, and Cisco knew Barry was just trying to inject some humor into this -- he usually loved that about him -- but Cisco really needed a breather right about now.

“Oh. Haha, yeah, I guess you’re right,” Cisco said, trying for casual but missing by a mile. “I’m just...gonna go for a walk.”

“Huh? How’re you gonna get down from here?” Barry looked confused.

“The long way,” Cisco gestured at the wooded path further behind them as he moved to sit up.

“Uh, okay. Let me get our stuff, then.”

“I meant I needed some alone time,” Cisco said softly.

And Barry’s eyes widened. “Are you…did I do some--”

“I’ll see you in a bit, Bar.”

There would be plenty of time for him to feel like an asshole later, but right now, he just walked away silently.

He kept walking because if he turned around now, there was no way he’d be able to leave Barry standing there like that.

 

* * *

 

 

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He’d had to go and get attached, and now he was stuck in the fuck buddy-friends with benefits limbo, which wasn’t necessarily a bad place to be when the buddy in question was Barry Allen. Still though, he did have that desire to settle down and start a family eventually. He loved Barry, he really did, it was just becoming clearer over the past year that Barry wasn’t going to be the one that he did the settling down part with.

Part of him understood where Barry was coming from. They led dangerous lives. They’d both lost so much since this journey started, Barry more than most. And anyone close to the Flash was in particularly grave danger of being used as a pawn in the battle for Central City, but god dammit, Cisco wasn’t some blushing maiden who needed rescuing at the first sign of danger. He (as Vibe) and Barry had been teaming up much more in the field lately and he’d even been easing into his offensive powers with the Flash by his side.

Point being: he could take care of himself just fine.

But he was startled out of his thoughts by a rustling to his right.

“Hello?”

And Cisco was immediately berating himself afterwards, because any humans -- ‘humans’ -- he was likely to run into almost certainly wouldn’t speak modern English.

Another rustle.

“Barry?” he called. He remembered the prank war and definitely wouldn’t put it past Barry to be playing a practical joke on him right now.

“This isn’t funny!” Cisco yelled out when he heard the noise again, louder this time.

He squinted. There was something in the distance, but given how dark it was, he could only make out the large silhouette.

And then there was a deafening roar. Out of the shadows emerged an enormous T-Rex, its head and razor-sharp teeth and beady eyes illuminated by the full moon.

Cisco’s first thought was: cool! And his second was: _I’m about to die_.

On instinct, he threw out a sonic wave from both hands, but that technique was still a work in progress and all it seemed to do was piss off the T-Rex even more.

“Help!” he screamed at no one in particular, then “Barry!” because of course Barry would be the meta with the most useful powers to get him out of this situation. How was this his life again?

He backed up and cursed his clumsy ass for tripping over a network of gnarled roots. As the monster in front of him advanced even closer, the chorus of _I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead_ intermingled with traitorous thoughts of _How cool would it be to say you died getting eaten by a T-Rex?_ because his brain could definitely be an asshole sometimes.

When the jaws finally opened and bore down on him, he at least knew it would be a quick death. He didn’t even feel anything when his vision went black.

 

* * *

 

 

Cisco opened his eyes with a gasp.

The first thing he noticed was Barry standing next to him in the Flash suit. And then, taking stock of his surroundings, he realized they were in the valley from earlier in the day. He could see the rocky spires in the distance that they’d been lying on that night.

“What happened?” he asked. Barry only stared back at him with wide eyes.

Cisco swallowed audibly, which finally stirred Barry into motion. “Are you hurt?” His fingers roved over every inch of Cisco’s body, poking and prodding for injuries. When he grasped his fingers, Cisco felt the electricity course through his body and jolted. Barry didn’t stop, though, and Cisco could sense his heart rate rising exponentially, the adrenaline making him dizzy as the little bolts of lightning searched frantically for wounds that weren’t there.

He swatted at Barry’s hands. “I’m fine. Stop doing that, you’ve got my heart racing now.”

“Sorry,” Barry said sheepishly. He pulled away and Cisco could feel whatever mojo Barry had been working leave his body. “How much do you remember?”

Cisco tried to think back. It came to him in glimpses. The meteor shower. The semi-argument above the valley. The dark walk through the woods. And a full set of sixty some-odd teeth chowing down on him. But it was enough to jog his memory.

“You...you time traveled?”

Barry nodded, and when Cisco really looked at him, he was startled by how ashen his face was, all wide eyes and gaunt cheeks.

“Dude,” Cisco said in wonder. “You time traveled within a time travel. That’s like, _Inception_ levels of cool. Anyway,” he continued when Barry only continued to stare at him like Cisco might break into a million pieces at any second, “thanks for the save, man.”

“Always,” Barry said, voice only just above a whisper.

Unpleasant memories of their talk of commitment and the future came to him unbidden, and Cisco distinctly didn’t want to talk about this now, but he figured it was as good a time as any to air everything out. “Look,” he said, “about before...I was way out of line, Barry. We can go at whatever pace you’re comfortable with and I--”

“But I--”

“No, stop. Whatever apology you’re about to give, and I _know_ you’re gonna try and apologize because you always do that even when it’s not your fault, so I don’t wanna hear it.” Barry closed his mouth and opened it again like a fish out of water.

“Shit happens, okay? I think today showed that more than anything, so you’re right to be concerned about moving too fast or -- or losing each other. Besides,” he added quickly in an attempt to get it all out at once, because while it hurt to say it, he had to let Barry know that he’d rather have what little of him he could than not at all, “what we’ve got now is perfect. Don’t need more than this, right?” He gestured at the magnificent, starlit landscape around them. Sometimes he wanted more (more than sometimes, if he was being honest with himself), but that wasn’t his call.

Barry still looked concerned, though.

“Come on, seriously. You and me? We’re good.” He grabbed the blankets from Barry and looked up at the outcrop again. “Let’s get this night back on track.”

“I...okay, I’d like that,” Barry smiled tentatively.

Cisco wondered what big speech Barry had been preparing to unleash on him before he’d cut him off.

 

* * *

 

 

The day after they returned to the present, Barry and Cisco entered the Cortex to find Caitlin and Iris giggling at something on the workstation monitors, and it only intensified when they caught sight of the two of them.

“What’re you guys laughing at?” Cisco asked wearily, even though he knew he’d end up regretting asking them.

Iris swiveled the monitor in their direction.

_Jurassic Era Cave Paintings of the Flash and His Sidekick Unearthed In Ethiopa._

Caitlin zoomed in on the image in the article. The painting was crude at best, but there was no mistaking The Flash and...was that a dinosaur? In its jaws was a tiny human with jet-black goggles on.

Oh no.

Iris switched on the other monitor.

_Could the Flash Be a Deity From Before Our Time?_

Whoops. What was that about the Prime Directive?

It looked like an amateur blog post from a conspiracy theory site. At Cisco’s scowl, the girls dissolved into further laughter.

 _“ALLEN! RAMON!”_ Harry’s thunderous shouting from the hall caused them all to jump.

“Gotta go,” Barry said frantically. “The Jurassic stargazing was your idea, dude.” And then he was gone in a burst of wind. He was going to seriously kill Barry if he got out of this one alive.

“Wait!” Cisco called after him desperately. “You can’t leave me alone with him!”

Harry was stalking towards him now looking absolutely murderous.

Suddenly, Barry was standing in front of him again. Praise. “Not on your life,” he grinned.

Cisco’s surroundings blended into a swirl of colors as Barry picked him up and they ran for their lives. He even heard Iris and Caitlin full-on cackling now, even though he had no idea what was remotely funny about this situation.

*

Once all the fuss died down, though, Cisco had Barry run them over to the cave in question. What was a few thousand miles across the Atlantic when the payoff was a selfie? With a cave painting of themselves. In costume.

“If this was my only legacy on this Earth, I’d still be proud,” Cisco proclaimed.

And Barry giggled, because no matter how amusing he found this, there was no denying that he was geeking out just as hard as Cisco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +1 coming soon


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> andddd this fic is finally complete. hope you all enjoyed reading it.
> 
> here's my [tumblr](http://st4rlabsforever.tumblr.com)

+1.

When Barry had shown up to his apartment at three in the morning, Cisco’s first thought had been _“Are we going to die?”_ but the fact that Barry had even bothered knocking at all meant that it wasn’t anything too serious. Probably.

“What’s going on?” Cisco asked groggily.

“I was thinking we could go on another field trip,” Barry said quietly, and it was only then that Cisco realized he was in the suit, tachyon device shimmering in the dull light of the hallway.

He blinked. “Right _now_?” Because he was all for their Whovian adventures, just...not at the devil’s ass crack of dawn.

“It’s important,” Barry said, voice earnest and determined and shit, there were certain things Cisco could never say ‘no’ to, and those bright, green eyes and dimpled smile were numbers one and two on the list, respectively.

“Fine,” Cisco sighed. “Let me just pack a bag.”

Barry grabbed his wrist gently. “You won’t need one. This’ll be quick, promise.”

Cisco looked down at the BB-8 pajama bottoms and loose-fitting Flash t-shirt he was wearing and shrugged. Barry had seen him in far worse, anyway.

Only when Barry was moving in to pick him up did he think that Barry had come over knowing that Cisco would say ‘yes.’ Damn, he had it bad.

*

“Okay, so what you’re going to see is a bit heavy, but I need you to promise me that you won’t freak out,” Barry said uncharacteristically nervously.

“Uh, okay. What are we gonna see, exactly?”

“You have to see for yourself, but I swear I’ll explain after.”

And that didn’t do much to put Cisco at ease. He’d thought this was going to be another one of their little field trips, but now he was getting nervous, half anxious and half excited to see what had Barry so worked up.

Cisco nodded, and they began their laps around the pipeline.

 

* * *

 

 

“Where are we?”

As far as Cisco could tell, it was just another street in suburban Central City. The fog blanketing the streetlights was a little unnerving, though.

“This way. We can’t be seen here.” Barry led them off of the street and along the hedges that lined the cozy-looking homes. He phased through the dense shrubs, then turned back to look at Cisco. “You good?”

Cisco let his body relax. When he phased through objects, it was more like the objects moved for _him_. Barry vibrated his body at the frequency of the object in question, allowing his cells to pass through unobstructed, but Cisco forced the object to vibrate around himself. He wasn’t quite sure how it worked, just that it did on an instinctual level.

“All good on my end,” he said.

And Barry led them through perfectly trimmed and manicured yards, careful to stay out of the light. When they emerge from the bushes at the next intersection, Cisco gave a start.

Holly Drive.

Wasn’t this…? Barry hung a sharp right and Cisco had a sinking feeling that he knew where they were headed.

As they stared up at the modest, two-story house in front of them -- the place it all began -- Cisco asked, “When are we?” But even before Barry responded, some part of him already knew the answer.

“2000. We should have a few minutes before the others arrive.” Barry’s tone was wistful. Pensive.

And Cisco asked the question that had to be asked, because they were potentially messing with some deep shit here and neither of them needed a reminder of the consequences the last time someone meddled here. “We’re not gonna alter anything, right?” Barry shook his head silently. “So then, uh, why the trip down memory lane?”

“There’s -- there’s something I wanted to show you.” Barry pulled them around the side of house and into the thick undergrowth. And it was beyond obvious to Cisco that despite how hard Barry was trying to project an image of calm, he was anything but. The taut muscles in his back were visible even through the suit and it seemed like his eyebrows were permanently etched with those worry lines that Cisco always hated to see. He did his best to rub slow circles into Barry’s back, but that only helped marginally.

A couple of minutes later, dual yellow and red streaks flew up the walkway and crashed into the house.

“Should we…?” Cico asked, moving to stand up.

Barry held him back, though, staring intently at the walkway as if waiting for something. “Not yet.”

Not even a few seconds later, a second yellow blur entered the house and Barry turned, gave Cisco’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and said “Ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

He blinked and they were crouched in the corner of the kitchen. Hidden in the shadows as the storm raged on one room over.

_Nora! Hang on!_

The other Barry slid the door open and snuck a look.

“That was when the other me ran off with ten-year-old me,” Barry whispered beside him. “He told me not to save my mom.”

_Run, Barry! Run!_

And then, Nora Allen was screaming; there was the sickening scrunch of a knife meeting flesh; and the other Barry was sliding down to the floor, back flush against the wall as he sobbed silently.

It suddenly felt like Cisco was intruding on an intensely private moment. Sure, Barry tended to be a pretty open guy nowadays, especially after the two of them had become intimate, but even if Barry had _wanted_ him to bear witness to this scene, there was no way Cisco could be comfortable with it.

He made to slip through the wall, anything to get away from how stifling the room had become, when Barry stopped him with a firm hand on his wrist. “Please, I need you to understand…” There were tears running down his face now. Jesus, Cisco had no idea how Barry had the will to keep going, sometimes. He’d grown up with everyone thinking his father was a murderer, resolved to go back in time to save her, and was forced to give up on the dream of reuniting his family because some older version of himself told him not to.

Cisco had to dab at his eyes with the sleeve of his tee.

The other Barry had gone to comfort Nora now, and Barry flashed them over to the door for a better look.

_Please, my husband...my son…are they…?_

_They’re okay. They’re both safe._

“Wh-why are we here, Bar?” Dammit, he was getting all choked up, too, and normally, he would say that a liberal display of emotions was healthy, but right now, it just felt like he was being smothered in a blanket full of feelings.

Barry sniffled a little but took a breath and carried on. “Do you remember when I first got back from trying to save my mom...what my first words were?”

 

Cisco thought back to that night when Barry had come bursting out of the wormhole like a bat out of hell and shattered the time capsule. He remembered the impact sending all of them flying, but not much else after that until the Reverse Flash had Barry pinned.

“I wasn’t lying when I told Thawne that I already had everything I wanted,” Barry said quietly.

_I’m the Flash._

_I don’t understand…_

_I got a second chance...to come back here, to tell you that I’m okay…_

“You -- all of you guys... you’re my family now, Cis. I don’t think I was ever meant to change the past. That’s what the other me was trying to say. That trip to the past was only ever a second chance to say goodbye.”

“What do you mean?”

Barry gave one final look at the scene in the sitting room where the conversation was reaching its end before flashing them out of the house.

“Eobard existed because of me. Because of the jealousy and hatred he had for me. If I saved my mom, I never would’ve become the Flash. You never would’ve become Vibe. There would’ve been no way to stop the Singularity.”

Cisco swallowed. It did make a certain amount of sense.

“And I can’t help but think that everything that’s happened to me happened for a reason, that we’re...you’re something special, Cisco.” He wiped the tears away from Cisco’s eyes with the pads of his thumbs. “When you died...when that T-Rex got you -- no! Stop laughing!”

Cisco had snorted, but given the overwhelming amount of snot in his nose from the crying, it had come out as some grotesque cross between a laugh and a motorboat trying to power up its engine in six feet of sludge. “I can’t believe that actually happened.”

Barry started to giggle too, but didn’t fare much better. The pair of them must’ve sounded like a pen of pigs at feeding time, comforting each other as they cry-laughed in the middle of the street. Pathetic. And to top it all off, Cisco knew he wasn’t a pretty crier. His only consolation was that Barry was an even uglier crier than he was -- and what kind of consolation was that?

When they finally settled down, Barry started again, apparently dead set on finishing this exchange. “When I lost you that time, I realized something.”

“Oh?”

“I was so scared of taking what we had to the next stage because if I lost you, Cisco, I don’t think I could handle it. I _still_ can’t even deal with the fact that you _died_ that day,” Barry said, voice shaking.

“Hey, you brought me back, right?” Cisco smiled.

“Always.” Barry took Cisco’s hand in his own. “But I realized that if you died or -- or if I died before we ever got to explore what a life together would be like, that would be even worse.”

And this conversation was starting to veer into territory that he really wasn’t equipped to handle right now.

“I’m done worrying about the future, dude. So I guess what I’m saying is: I was being a moron. I wanna take the next step...if you’ll still have me, that is,” he added nervously.

Cisco didn’t answer right away, or even at all, which he blamed on the fact that Barry decided to drop this bombshell on him before the sun had even risen.

“...or, we don’t have to. Whatever you want.” Barry amended, ducked his head, and blushed furiously.

All the while, Cisco still couldn’t scrounge together enough brain cells to formulate a proper response. Barry had planned out his whole elaborate, meaningful speech and Cisco was flailing to reciprocate, because he was going to feel like a lame ass when he inevitably stuttered out a few flabbergasted words.

Barry sighed. “Sorry, I guess I must’ve misinter--”

“Of course I’ll still have you.” Cisco said in a rapid-fire burst.

Barry blinked back at him, and then their lips were crashing together, needy, passionate, and wild. They'd shared many kisses like this over the past couple of years, but this one felt different. More significant. 

“I was starting to get a little worried. You were so quiet,” Barry said when they finally broke apart for air.

“Tends to happen when you drop confessions of love like that at three in the morning, bro.”

Barry barked out a laugh. “Sorry, I couldn’t sleep tonight and I’ve been thinking about this ever since that night.”

“Figures.”

“Sooo," Barry said coyly, immediately rebounding with that energy that Cisco swore should've been illegal at three in the morning, "if you said yes, I had this whole elaborate plan to take us on another adventure."

Well, Cisco didn’t need much convincing, but he put up a token-show of resistance just because. “Does this trip involve dinosaurs and cavemen, by any chance?”

“If you want,” Barry grinned. And it really did feel like Cisco was looking straight into the sun.

“Sold.”

Barry picked him up in a bridal carry, not even waiting for a response before speeding off. Cisco had no idea what the future held in store for them, but he knew it was going to be fantastic.

 _Fin_.


End file.
